Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Was it inevitable? One won the American League West, while the other led it for most of the season and was forced to go the wild-card route to make it to this stage. The Texas Rangers and Houston Astros share a state and are bitter rivals and will face each other in the postseason for the first time in the ALCS. The...Read more...

Ah, the fresh hell of yet another international break. Club seasons are put on pause for a raft of qualifiers, be they Euro, or World Cup, that are pretty much foregone conclusions robbed of any real urgency, especially thanks to the expanded field for 2026. If not those, we get a helping of international friendlies,...Read more...

In case the NBA has not made itself clear over the last few months, the league office is fed up with load management. There are 82 games on the schedule, and players are expected to play in every single game unless they are actually injured. The NBA is going so far now as to claim it has data that the dreaded phrase l...Read more...

Stephen A. Smith is fanning the flames again in his ongoing beef with former ESPN colleagues.Read more...

You kind of knew it was over for the Dodgers the minute they acquired Lance Lynn. Lance Lynn? This is the Dodgers, for Christ's sake! When they need help in the rotation, they go get Zack Greinke, or Yu Darvish, or Max Scherzer. They shop at the supermarket that plebs like you and I aren't even allowed to look at from...Read more...

OK, it's time for Devil's Advocate corner: The NBA's stance on load management is a good thing, but not for the dumbass reasons Joe Dumars presented Wednesday. If you missed it, the executive vice president of basketball operations said there's no proof that load management prevents injuries. Maybe, maybe not, but I...Read more...

Ja Morant's predilection for flashing guns at teenagers during pickup runs and hitting send on threatening posts that invoke hollow-point rounds have repeatedly disrupted both his ascent and Memphis' pursuit of the franchise's first title. Morant's affinity for brandishing firearms in inappropriate settings earned him...Read more...

Dancing with the devil is a personal choice. But when the heat from that tango singes others, it becomes a problem. Some ESPN employees have to be burning mad over how they lost money due to pay cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic, all for the worldwide leader to spend almost $100 million for Pat McAfee to allow Aaron...Read more...

A string of text messages between current and former Michigan State University trustees show musings on how to smear the victim, lingering questions about how the school handled the sexual harassment allegations against Mel Tucker, speculation about revenge, and a suggestion that the MSU Board of Trustees use the...Read more...

The symmetry is almost startling. It was three days short of being the exact date, one year later. Brian Snitker didn't have an itchy enough trigger finger, or just fell asleep, and the Phillies teed off on a starter that shouldn't have been on the mound. Which pivoted the division series to a 2-1 Phillies lead, and...Read more...

Did anyone expect a different result?Read more...

Jared Goff's time with the Detroit Lions began the same way that it ended with the Los Angeles Rams, disappointing. By Week 7 of his first season with the Lions, Dan Campbell looked at the media, took a deep breath,and criticized Goff during a postgame press conference. At that point in the season, the Lions were...Read more...

For all the noise about WWE vs. AEW" and whatever that means to everybody, they don't really go head to head on our screens very much. WWE pulled NXT off of Wednesdays when it mostly got its brains beaten in by the burgeoning AEW Dynamite. AEW has struggled on the Saturday nights that WWE runs a Premium Live Event on...Read more...

The first-ever international exhibition on Sept. 8, 1978, is immortalized for the defending NBA champion Washington Bullets' loss to Maccabi Tel Aviv by the score of 97-98. Since 2000, when the EuroLeague was founded, NBA teams are 75-17 against Europe's top teams in exhibitions. Or 17-75 if you want to look at the...Read more...

The Los Angeles Lakers are coming off a rollercoaster ride of a season last year where they started out looking utterly defeated only to bounce back and make a Western Conference Finals run in head coach Darvin Ham's first year on the job. Now entering year two, Ham recently made waves when he stated he'd like to see...Read more...

Following a couple of games in which the Georgia Bulldogs looked semi-vulnerable, Kirby Smart's team put it on now No. 24 Kentucky to the tune of 51-13. It was such a lopsided victory that it left UK coach Mark Stoops with an aftertaste no amount of Listerine will wash out. While I understand his frustration, I'd just...Read more...

Last night should've been pure, unadulterated joy. I haven't been shy when it comes to the Texas Rangers and writing about my favorite baseball team. It swept the 101-win Orioles and advanced to the American League Championship Series for the first time in a dozen years. I was a sophomore in college the last time the...Read more...

Stanley Cup picks in October are dumb. We have no idea who will be hurt, what the trade deadline will do, what goalie will have an existential crisis (Jakob Markstrom), or what goalie will channel the Arc Of The Covenant and turn their also-ran into a threat (Igor Shesterkin). It's a long goddamn season, and it can...Read more...

Last Thursday, sports reporter Audrey Dahlgren had a very bad day, by journalistic standards. After attorneys for Mel Tucker, the recently fired head football coach at Michigan State, released 98 pages worth of text messages sent by Brenda Tracy - an anti-rape advocate who filed a Title IX complaint against Tucker for...Read more...

If you woke up a little late this morning, you may have missed the announcement out of Indianapolis that Colts rookie quarterback Anthony Richardson was placed on injured reserve. Richardson is scheduled to miss at least four games on IR with a right shoulder injury (AC joint sprain) and could miss up to eight weeks....Read more...

Anthony Richardson has never been so lucky to get injured in his life. The Indianapolis Colts' rookie QB has been operating on pure talent and instincts over the first four starts of his career. He's tallied seven TDs total - tied with C.J. Stroud the lead among all rookie QBs - in essentially 12 quarters, and the...Read more...

[Update]: The Maywood Police has released the following statement:Read more...

After Aaron Rodgers referred to Travis Kelce as Mr. Pfizer, Kelce fired a return grenade at Rodgers, whose team is owned by a pharmaceutical magnate. Rodgers' idea to resolve this once and for all was inviting Kelce onto his Pat McAfee Show home turf to debate the vaccine along with Robert Kennedy Jr. and Anthony...Read more...

Less than two months ago, four former athletes, a white female pseudo-reporter, and a rapper were announced as the new co-hosts of a worsening sports morning show. It was an example of how networks, and viewers, have incorrectly become obsessed with the idea that more athletes/coaches serve these broadcasts better...Read more...

The brand is strong with Dillon Brooks. He helped turn the Memphis Grizzlies into a contender, and for his services, he got thrown out of a window like Axel Foley.Read more...

It's awfully easy, and too easy, to point at an up-and-coming team like the Rangers that spent a lot of money to augment the players they developed from within and say that's the reason they clobbered an up-and-coming team like the Orioles that did the exact opposite, basically only adding the decrepit Jack Flaherty...Read more...

After a Week 5 loss to the defending Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs, the Minnesota Vikings are off to a 1-4 start and seem to be throwing in the towel. On Monday, news broke that the Vikings are now more open" to trading quarterback Kirk Cousins. On Tuesday, more news out of Minnesota shed more light on a...Read more...

When the Seattle Seahawks defensive coaches go over the game tape of Cincinnati Bengals vs. Arizona Cardinals with players, the first play that they should show is Joe Burrow's 10-yard scramble at the end of the third quarter. The second should be Burrow running in a literal circle to evade a rusher before completing...Read more...

If you've found yourself noticing more bad football than usual in the NFL, you're not wrong. After five weeks, there are seven teams with one win or fewer, and none of them are the New York Jets, Houston Texans, or Washington Commanders. The New York Giants, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots, Chicago Bears, Denve...Read more...

The next time someone tells you that sexual assault allegations ruin a man's career," you only have to point to Cristiano Ronaldo. It's been nearly five years since the German outlet Der Spiegel published what it purported were leaked documents between Ronaldo's attorneys regarding an alleged sexual assault he was...Read more...

If there's anything the most recent NBA champions taught us, it's that the center can still be the focal point of an offense. Sixty-six-million years ago, Michael Jordan's arrival was a terraforming meteor that ended the age of the pivots and began the reign of guards. Prior to His Airness, NBA champs were headlined...Read more...

Let's keep it rolling. You can see our Eastern Conference preview from yesterday here.

Ugh, here we go. Once again, Dallas Cowboys All-Pro linebacker Micah Parsons is commenting on something best left alone. Apparently, Parsons took exception to San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle's t-shirt he revealed following Sunday night's massacre. The shirt that has Parson's in his feelings said, F*ck...Read more...

Last week, the NCAA approved changes to the transfer portal. Three days later, Miami head football Mario Cristobal showed why the portal is so important - so that players can get away from coaches like him.Read more...

Another NHL season is upon us, and the NHL wasted no time in being the NHL:Read more...

Welcome to Coach Prime Day (patent pending) where everything is for sale. Tablets, air fryers, backpacks, integrity, you name it, Coach Prime will endorse it. (No idea if Deion Sanders signed off to endorse this advertorial, but we should probably run it by legal before we get a cease, and desist from Coach Prime,...Read more...

I was tempted to turn the Sunday Night Football game off when Cris Collinsworth said that the San Francisco 49ers throw slants to the fullback," after Kyle Juszczyk caught a seven-yard pass off of a slant route. Collinsworth, forcing me to listen to what I just saw, snapped me out of my trance. I thought that I was...Read more...

You know things have gone off the rails when the New York Jets social media team trolls you after a loss. That's the reality for the Denver Broncos and head coach Sean Payton after falling to the Jets, 31-21. Payton had some choice words before the season aimed at former Broncos head coach and current Jets offensive...Read more...

While Arsenal ran Manchester City close for most of the campaign last season, when the chips were down in the spring they got mauled by the Citizens twice, as well as other boneheaded results that eventually left them up the track. It was this version of Arsenal's first crack at a title challenge, so some...Read more...

Jim Jordan wants to be Speaker of the House.Read more...

Even though the highly anticipated Sunday Night Football showdown revealed that Jerry Jones' Dallas Cowboys were no competition for the San Francisco 49ers, the rest of the NFL Week 5 slate was largely entertaining.Read more...

Asking adults to conduct themselves in a mature manner, unfortunately, is a big ask. Decency and common sense do not automatically come with age. Adults act poorly in restaurants, department stores, airline flights, and pretty much any other public space. Sporting events from T-Ball to the Super Bowl are where adults...Read more...

For anyone under the age of 30, it's difficult to remember an NBA without LeBron James.Read more...

Like the college kids who crash through the side door into a party with a goofy, boozed-up look on their face, here comes the NHL season as a surprise.Read more...

Bill Belichick, or whatever is left of him, has had a nominal interest in opening up the New England offense for years now. His interest in the offensive side is merely a cursory obligation. The rules require Belichick to field a quarterback under center but since the day Tom Brady cut ties with him, The Hoodie pushed...Read more...

After putting a major league beatdown on the Miami Dolphins last week, it looked like the Buffalo Bills were taking a step toward separating themselves in a highly competitive AFC. One game after scoring 48 points against a hot Dolphins squad, the Bills couldn't even muster up half of that in Week 5, losing to...Read more...

The beauty of college football is that it's Ground Zero for raw athletes being molded into gems every week before our very eyes. However, pressure doesn't always make diamonds. Welcome to the D-List, Deadspin Dean's acknowledgment of college football's most woeful performances. This is a nod to college football's...Read more...

Clayton Kershaw is the best pitcher of the 21st century. This much isn't really in dispute. A career 2.48 ERA and 2.82 FIP over 16 years is unimpeachable. There's three Cy Youngs to go with it, and an MVP in 2014 when he had a 1.77 ERA and a 0.857 WHIP, which is beyond stupid. He probably should have one or two more...Read more...

You know Dutch middle-distance runner Sifan Hassan, even if you don't know her name. If you spent any time watching track and field (and wow do I wish this was more of a weekly sport here in the U.S.), you can't miss her. Hassan won three medals in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, taking the gold in both the 10,000 meters...Read more...

Los Angeles Rams All-Pro wide receiver Cooper Kupp makes his season debut in Week 5 after missing the second half of last year due to injury. Kupp's return couldn't come at a better time as LA hosts Philly. In his absence, a new and unlikely star in rookie WR Puka Nacua has emerged as another dynamic threat for the...Read more...